Duterte blames De Lima for narco-politics in gov’t

WITHOUT naming her, President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday tossed the blame to Sen. Leila De Lima for the worsening of the drug menace in the country, notably at the national penitentiary, which opened “the portals of government to narco politics.”

The President also said he is no longer making public the names of about 6,000 policemen and local executives linked to drugs in the Philippines so as not to “shatter the dream of Filipinos.”

A senator has opened “the portals of the government to narco-politics,” the President said before thousands of Filipinos at the Indoor Stadium of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex at Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei.

“You must remember that there are 6,000 policemen contaminated with drugs in the Philippines. Kaya the last na listahan hindi ko na inilabas. Kasi it will just shatter the dream of the Filipinos. Iko-contain ko na lang ito in whatever manner they’d want me to do it basta alam ko…Pati ang problema, ang mga mayors pati barangay captains almost 6,000 of them,” the President said.

He also mentioned the six uniformed generals contaminated by the drug problem.

“Kasi nagmumura ako eh ‘di ba six generals in the police were into drugs? So they were the first ones who have to be fired,” Duterte said, pointing up the seriousness and gravity of the illegal drug trade in the country.

Earlier the President exhibited his drug matrix with De Lima in it and indicated he wanted her behind bars owing to her links to the proliferation of illegal drug trade at the national penitentiary.

Thirty witnesses claimed De Lima was behind the drug trade at the Bilibid, according to justice chief Vitaliano Aguirre.

Duterte also reiterated his stance on the international concern over the increasing number of deaths in the government’s war on drugs not to threaten him.

“Sabi ko nga, I am willing to rot in jail for the Filipino. Do not keep on threatening or intimidating me,” he said before the Filipino community in Brunei late Sunday as he started his three-day state visit in the country.

This comes after the European Parliament, the US government, and the United Nations, among others, expressed concern over the rising death toll of Duterte’s drug war.

Not state sanctioned

While he admitted that there could be “extrajudicial killings” here these were not ordered by the state.

The Duterte administration has been receiving flak from international observers due to its alleged involvement in extra-judicial executions.

Among the President’s most vocal critics was UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard, who in August called out Duterte for endorsing the killing of drug suspects, describing the new President’s statements as a “license to kill.”

The Palace announced that the government has formally invited the UN rapporteur to investigate the thousands of killings during Duterte’s war on crime.